28.03.05,
Diplomacy
Ahmed Boukhari takes part in investiture festivities of the new
president of Uruguay, M. Tabaré Vázquez. In an
interview with the daily La Republica the SADR representative
declares that his country would like to establish diplomatic
relations with Uruguay and hopes for a favourable decision from the
new government. [Entrevista,
La Republica,
28.03.05]

30-31.03.05,
Consultative Council
The Saharawi Consultative Council, composed of former notables who
took part in the identification process, meet in Ausserd wilaya. They
issued a statement calling on the international community to work for
the respect for international law in Western
Sahara.[SPS]

03.-04.04.05,
Cultural colloquium of Saharawi women
The twelfth cultural colloquium opened at 27 February school, in the
presence of a large number of foreign participants and Saharawi
political and cultural officers. The participants took part in four
workshops, on maternal health, religious, moral and cultural affairs,
a third on the struggle for liberation and means of development and
the last one on the occupied territories and human rights.
Contributing by telephone from the occupied territories, Aminatu
Haidar, former disappeared Saharawi calls on the international
community "to put pressure on Morocco to make it conform to
international law and to put an end to its systematic violations of
human rights in the occupied territories of Western Sahara."
[SPS]

06.04.05,
Recognition freeze
The President of Madagascar, on an official visit to Morocco,
announces that his country is freezing recognition of SADR, but that
"Madagascar, following the example of several other countries on the
continent, sees itself in the camp of those who place themselves in
the hands of the United Nations" and does not recognise therefore the
sovereignty claimed by Morocco over the territory. [AP quoting
MAP]

07.04.05,Visit
The South African Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dr. Nkosazana Dlamini
Zuma, carries out an official visit to the Saharawi Republic, the
first after recognition of SADR by South Africa in September 2004.
Mrs Zuma is received by the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mohamed
Salek, at Tindouf airport, before going to Smara where the Prime
Minister Abdelkader Taleb Oumar awaits her, surrounded by members of
the Government and political leadership of the Polisario Front. Mrs
Zuma has talks then with the President of the Republic, Mohamed
Abdelaziz, who gives her the national medal of honour "20 May".
"South Africa will continue to support the Saharawi people until it
achieves independence", she declared during a popular meeting. She
communicated to the Saharawi people "the concern of Mr Mbeki for your
legitimate rights to self-determination, which should be granted to
you through the UN Charter", adding that "we will work in concert
with the African Union, where we are members beside SADR and with the
UN to allow the Saharawi people to enjoy this recognised universal
right ". Cooperation agreements are signed between the two countries.
[SPS]

28.03.05,
Repression
Arrest of Kotb Mohamed Salek, alias Elqotb Hamma, in the middle of a
street in El Ayoune. Taken to the Criminal Investigation Department,
he is released after having been interrogated about the sit-in
arranged for 29.03.05 by the families of martyrs of Moroccan prisons.
Kotb Mohamed Salek is deprived of his passport and the right to
travel from March 2003, when he wanted to go to Geneva to attend
a
meeting of families
of disappeared Saharawis. Kotb is the brother of the disappeared Kotb
Hafed [Elqotb Elhafed], abducted in 1992.

29.03.05,
Demonstration in El Ayoun
During a demonstration of women in the quarter of El Moukhayam (camp
Alawda), Toufa Ali Labeid, a woman aged 50 years, is seriously
wounded [statement
in Arabic and photos
on the site Cahiers du Sahara]

Reaction of
the Rafto prizewinner of 2002, Sidi Mohamed Dadach, who appeals to
human rights organisations to condemn publicly "systematic human
rights abuses in Western Sahara perpetrated by the Moroccan
police."

The Moroccan
daily Aljareeda al oukhra publishes a dossier on El Ouali Mustafa
Sayed, founder and first secretary general of the Polisario Front.
[In
Arabic
]

Anti-personnel
mines
A humanitarian action for a young girl from the region of Assa, the
victim of an anti-personnel mine explosion in 2004, was undertaken
within Saharawi circles including Tamek Ali Salem. Once known, the
appeal for the victim was described by Morocco as "a political and
propaganda manoeuvre by the separatists". Through the intervention of
a Moroccan NGO, the authorities intervening in the name of the royal
palace, have finally taken charge of the medical treatment of the
child by undertaking to fund it in Rabat. One can hope that thanks to
all this rumpus, the injured girl will benefit from the optimal
treatment. Particularly virulent and defamatory attacks on Ali Salem
Tamek were circulated in a certain press. [>> see the
interview with the vice-president of the Association of the Moroccan
Sahara who declares: "...it is Saharawi civil society which takes
upon itself to respond to Tamek, and in a manner which will not be
the nicest."[Aujourd'hui
le Maroc,
29.04.05] ["Tamek
rate son rapt"...
id. 06.04.05] 28.03.05 etc
Solidarity with Tamek: [communiqué
UPES]
[numerous
communiqués in Arabic
on Cahiers du Sahara]

09.04.05,
Confrontations between Sahraouis and Morocans close to Dakhla.
The octopus fishing season began on February 1, after pressure from
Saharawi fishers and citizen the number of boats authorized to fish
was fixed at 2005 in order to reduce the overexplotation. But this is
not respected by illegal Moroccan fishers. So Saharawi citizen
opposed to the overexploitation of octopus, blocked the roads and
prevented the trucks charged with illegally fished octopuses to pass,
in some cases they put fire at their cargo. The wali of Dakhla who
tried to intervene was wellcomed by strawing of stones. The army was
called in reinforcement, soldiers shot in the air but could not break
the demonstration . According the last news the Minister of Interior
and the General Benslimane joined Dakhla. >> some picturess
[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][corr.] [SPS]

MOROCCO

30.03.05,
IER
Sessions for hearing witnesses (or victims?) of serious human rights
abuses during the period 1956-1999 were recently organised by the
Equity and Reconciliation Body, (Instance Equité et
Réconciliation - IER) in El Ayoun and Tan Tan. According to
the Journal hebdomadaire, to avoid any excesses, the date and place
of the sessions were kept secret until the last minute,and Saharawi
human rights activists were excluded from the sessions. Similar
sessions had been organised in February last by the IER, which has
4000dossiers
to deal with from occupied Western Sahara and whose mandate ends on
13 April.

31.03.05,
Social Forum
Morocco announces that the decentralised Social Forum planned for
January 2006 will not take place in Morocco due to a refusal by the
authorities.

US Military
Base
The armies of Morocco and the United States organise from 1-10 April
joint exercises of "humanitarian intervention" in the Moroccan region
of Tan-Tan, the staff of the Moroccan Royal Army forces indicated.
These exercises have been named "African Lion 2005" and aim to
"reinforce the capacities of the two armies as regards planning and
conduct of operations in the context of humanitarian interventions".
[AFP]
The Moroccan press relates this reinforcement of American military
presence with the possibility of the construction of a military base
in the region of Tan-Tan. [Lunes
en África,
Gonzalo H. Martel, Canarias7, 04.04.05] [El
Independiente De Canarias,
8-4-2005]These manoeuvres are taking place in parallel with those of NATO
on the island of Fuerteventura, with the participation of 3,000 men,
including American troops and are arousing lively protests in the
Canary Islands. [Carta
al Segretario general de la ONU
Sr Kofi Annan] [OTAN:
Más que maniobras - una invasión en toda
regla,
ElGuanchePress, 02.04.05]According to As-sabah of 08.04.05, an American military official
has allegedly denied the intention of the United States to set up a
military base in the region of Tan-Tan.See dossier "
No a la militarizacion"
on El Guanche.

06.04.05
First session of the trial of Ali Lmrabet on charges made by a
defector from the Polisario for his declarations on return from his
trip to Algeria and the Saharawi refugee camps in November 2004.
["As for what is put around about the Saharawis in Tindouf,
that they are hostages, these are lies and mystification", Al
Moustakil].[communiqué
de Ali Lmrabet]

ALGERIA

02.04.05
Algeria has decided not to issue visas for people of Moroccan origin
who wish to enter its territory. Morocco is supposed to have accepted
that the question of the Sahara will not be on the agenda of its
negotiations with Algeria.

HUMAN
RIGHTS

61st session
of the UN Commission of human rights
Interventions relating to the Saharawi question:

02.03.05,
Written submission by LIDLIP on item 5 and 10

24.03.05, Item
9: Right to self-determination
Speaker: Ubbi
Bouchraya in
the name of the International Union of Socialist Youth -
IUSY)

31.03.05, Item
10: Economic, social and cultural rights.Intervention
of M'Hamed Cheikh,
in the name of ISMUN, International Student Movement for the United
Nations.

30.03.05,
European Parliament
The Foreign Affairs Committee of the European Parliament declares
itself preoccupied by the human rights abuses taking place in Western
Sahara. The committee also calls on the parties to the conflict to
take the Baker Plan as a basis for progressing to a solution to the
conflict. [Europa
Press]

04.04.05,
European Parliament
MP Willy Meyer (Spain) sends a written question to the EU Council on
the subject of repression of the demonstration of Saharawi students
in Rabat on 8 March 2005.

25.03.05
Wall of shame and mines
Letter from the Belgian senator, Pierre Galand to the UN SG,
French
or Spanish
.

"The Worst
of the Worst: The World's Most Repressive Societies 2005" .
Freedom House released its annual list of the world's most
repressive regimes at the United Nations Commission on Human
Rights. >> full
report (Morocco/Western
Sahara: see
page 129)